GEK-TERNA, one of Greece’s major construction and energy companies, aims at 1,000 MW installed capacity from thermal plants and 1,800 MW from renewables by 2012.
GEK-TERNA’s chairman George Peristeris at a presentation in the Institutional Investor Association in Athens on Wednesday said that the driving force of the company’s growth is expected to come from the energy segment where the TERNA, the energy arm of the Group, has been positioning itself steadily ahead of the market’s deregulation this summer.
Currently, the company operates wind farms of 109 MW and thermal plants of 147 MW. Under construction are projects with capacity of 483 MW, while it holds power generation licenses of 623 MW. It has submitted applications considering renewables and thermal plants totalling 1, 437 MW.
TERNA has just started the construction of a 400 MW combined-cycle gas-fired plant in Thebes, some 100 km north of Athens while it has submitted an application for a 460MW imported coal-fired plant in Evia, in Western Greece. The company plans to build its own coal-terminal to serve the needs of the plant.
It is worth noting that TERNA is the second energy firm in Greece which proceeds independently with the construction of a majorelectricity production unit, following Mytilineos’ move in February, withdrawing its interest from a national tender, held by DESMIE, the grid operator (HTSO).
Heron Termoelectric SA, a subsidiary of TERNA, has already submitted a bid for the first electricity production unit in Greece called by the HTSO.
Mytilineos withdrew its interest from HTSO’s tender and said it will construct independently a gas-fired CCP plant of 412 MW in southern Greece.
In 2006 the group’s net profits were EUR37.8 million versus EUR32.8 million in 2005, while sales rose to EUR649 million from EUR519 million in 2005.